MILITARY/RUSSIA/SYRIA: “Syria condemned a rare U.S. airstrike on forces fighting for President Bashar al-Assad and Russia ratcheted up criticism of Washington’s military operations, as tensions rose in a resource-rich part of the country that has been relatively calm in recent months.
The U.S. military launched the strike and aimed artillery fire at the pro-regime forces Wednesday in response to what it called an ‘unprovoked attack’ on U.S. and coalition personnel near the eastern city of Deir Ezzour.
The area is covered by a so-called deconfliction agreement brokered last year to avoid military confrontations as both sides battled Islamic State. The Syrian government and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have largely observed the pact.
But as the threat from Islamic State in Syria diminishes, with the militant group’s territorial control largely reduced to a small area along the Iraqi border, the Assad regime has heightened its rhetoric against both the mostly Kurdish SDF and the Kurdish semiautonomous region in northern Syria. Mr. Assad sees both groups as a threat to Syria’s territorial integrity…
Russia’s military said the confrontation between pro-Assad troops and coalition forces occurred because the Syrian militia hadn’t cleared their movements with the Russian command in Syria. A U.S. military spokesman said in a Twitter message that the Americans communicated with Russia via the deconfliction line before, during and after the attack.”
-Raja Abdulrahim, “Syria Condemns U.S. Airstrike as Tensions Rise,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 8, 2018 02:31pm